Build Advice [NOOB] Scrapping NAS for a DIY Build

Hey Guys,

I'm looking to replace my Netgear Sotra NAS with something more server, more flexible, something I can expand over time.
The main use I guess would be streaming SD & HD films, TV Shows and Music. It would also act as file storage and I guess backup storage of my 2 Macs, external access would be great too and also it will be on 24x7 or pretty much all the time.
Also another reason is, I just want to build something: P

I been looking around bit-tech and trolling the net and have come up with some spec, now I feel as if I have let myself get out of control and using components that will be wasted in this machine or will consume a lot of power and give me a heart attack when the energy bill comes in!!. I been told to look at the HP ProLiant, so if anyone believes this HP would be better overall or not please post you ideas.

As I have only been looking into self build a few days I'm still completely clueless. I have no idea if I'm going to need extra cables and fans, ect.
Please be brutal, I know as much in self build as I do in quantum psychics.... atm.

Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 - £38.99 (I’m not 100% set on this case)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Mast...1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1330726122&sr=1-1

PSU: Corsair CX500 V2 80 PLUS® -£49 (Would CX600 be more suited?)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMPSU-500CXV2UK-Builder-CX500V2-Certified/dp/B005851O16

Motherboard: ASUS M5A88-M AM3+ AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - £79.00
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/asus-...matx-motherboard-am3-socket-11284301-pdt.html

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 460 3.4GHz Socket AM3 1.5MB (3x512KB) L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor- £66.00
http://www.ebuyer.com/270556-amd-at...cket-am3-1-5mb-3x512kb-l2-cache-adx460wfgmbox

RAM: G-Skill 8GBXL Ripjaws X for Intel Sandybridge Platforms DDR3 PC12800 1600MHz 8GB Kit - £38.00 (The price difference between the 4GB and 8GB was minimal so I went for the 8GB but can always settle for the 4GB)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/G-Skill-Ripjaws-Sandybridge-Platforms-PC12800/dp/B004HZG4ZO

HDD: Samsung F4 EcoGreen 2TB 32MB 5400RPM 3.5 Inch SATA-II Internal Hard Drive - 3 Year Warranty - OEM - £100 each (I have 1TB from my Sotra so will buy 1 extra TB to start off)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Eco...1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1330881608&sr=8-2-fkmr0

Am I missing anything? Will I need to buy my own fans? What kind of Cables? Does it even tally up!!!

Would anyone suggest a cheap SSD for boot? or is cheap not the right word.
Anything you can think of!! Go wild.

Thank you for your help. It’s most appreciated!!

 

Bumping as my thread had to be approved and it ended up being so far down no one would see it :'(

 

post more link account to scan save money on postage
Most cases have fans just can be a bit loud and the board should have all the cables you need.
Dont worry about a SSD for boot if running nas use a CF or a Thumb drive. Server use small HD

on side note that is one fugly case

 

Do you plan to have many drives in the system ? If yes, i must push you towards Define R3. I have 11 (yes, eleven) drives in it - 8 in the original HD bays, two in 3.5" bays (i could squeeze there a third one with a 3x3.5->2x5.25" adapter) and one more extra using a spare HDD bracket from another case which is between the PSU and the HDD rack - all drives are 41-45C max, most in sub-40C region - with just 2 slow intake fans, one CPU fan and 1 outtake fan. The sound insulation is a nice addition too.

Considering it will be on 24/7, you could be also thinking more along the lines of Intel H61/H67 board and Intel Celeron G530 (2.4GHz dualcore) - it is more power efficient than the AMD combination. I have a G530 in my XBMC box and it handles everything without issues even using IGP - it is a system with just one SSD, but it idles in XBMC (which is more taxing than generic OS desktop as it is a graphical output with vsync on) at 35W from the socket, plays SD content at 36W, HD content at 37W and ultrademanding HD content (Samsung Oceanic) at 39W.

RipjawsX are fine, i personally got 4x4GB in desktop, 2x4GB+2x8GB in the server. That is 40GB of RipjawsX in two systems combined .

 

I'd buy second hand and the money you save will pay for the savings in elec ten-fold compared to buying something power efficient.

Shameless promotion but I happen to be selling a rig that was used for the same thing you're going to be doing: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=2990573

Ran passively with just a 140mm exhaust fan so would be perfect as a NAS...

 

He won't be able to read your ad Atomic - won't have marketplace access yet

 

Shame, Q9300, GByte P35-DS3R, 4x1GB DDR2 & Scythe Ninja would made a decent NAS.

 

Going to second what faugusztin said. Go with a socket 1155 celeron and an h61/h67 motherboard. This will be cheaper to buy and use much less power. While the memory you've selected is very good it seems like overkill for this system. I'd just go with something like this and save £20:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...6-(1333)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-150v


Edit: I also second what he said about the define r3. I have one myself for my server and its a fantastic case for that purpose.

 

Thanks for your reply faugusztin.

I agree the Define R3 case does look alot better and over time I do plan on growing the HDD's so I think I will spend a little more and ditch the fugly one I linked to before

As for the mobo Im thinking this THIS Asus P8H67-M-LE Intel H67 , its got 2 6GB/s and 4 3GBs, also a HDMI output.

The only thing is it seems to have a warning:
**Please note: Intel Sandybridge SATA Issue on P67 and H67 Motherboards.
There is NO Issue with Sandybridge Processors (CPU's). Only Motherboards are potentially affected.
Devices connected to SATA Ports 0 & 1 or Using the SATAIII (6Gb/s) Ports are not affected.**

How will this effect the 4 3GB/s SATA's?

As for CPU I've found one that you suggested for £31 HERE.

Working out the changes the 3 items come to around £181 for the Itel + R3 compared to 184 for the AMD + Fugly Case.

Only thing worring me is the "Please Note" scan have for the mobo :S

 

It won't affect you at all, B2 boards are not on sale for nearly a year, B3 boards don't have this issue :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge#Cougar_Point_chipset_flaw

 

Yeah it was a flaw discovered in the initial batch of sandy bridge motherboards. All boards sold now should be the B3 revision.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

I've revised some of the specs so I'll repost them below and explain what I've changed after.

Case - Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl Case - USB3.0
Price: £70.00 - Delivery £0.00
http://www.ebuyer.com/236437-fractal-design-define-r3-black-pearl-case-usb3-0-fd-ca-def-r3-usb3-bl

PSU - Corsair TX550M 550W Modular
Price: £67.00 - Delivery £0.00
http://www.ebuyer.com/279548-corsair-tx550m-550w-modular-power-supply-cp-9020001-uk

Motherboard - ASUS 1155 P8H67-M LE R3 S/L M-ATX
Price: £74.94 - Delivery £0.00
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-1155-P8H67-M-R3-M-ATX/dp/B004OA02TG

CPU - Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket 1155 2MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Price: £35.72 Delivery £4.00
http://www.ebuyer.com/281424-celeron-g530-2-40-ghz-lga1155-2mb-bx80623g530

RAM - G-Skill 8GBXL Ripjaws X for Intel Sandybridge Platforms DDR3 PC12800 1600MHz 8GB Kit
Price: £39.74 - Delivery £0.00
http://www.amazon.co.uk/G-Skill-Ripjaws-Sandybridge-Platforms-PC12800/dp/B004HZG4ZO

Approx. Total: £291.40

Parts that have changed:

Case: Changed for an overall better case.
PSU: Changed from CX500 to a TX550M
Motherboard and CPU: Changed from AMD to Intel

So basically everything has changed

For the HDD I could either go for:
1TB WD Caviar Green £75 (60 Months Warranty)
2TB Seagate Barracuda £92 (24 Months Warranty)

The OS will either be WHS2011 or Ubuntu or Win7? Suggestions on an OS would be cool
Thats it... I think :S

Other than that any bits like Thermal Compound to cover the CPU?

Thanks again

EDIT: Forgot to mention RAID. Im thinking of using RAID3 until I have enough drives to switch to RAID5 is that possible? Or should I stick to single drives?

 

drop the cpu down to one of the low power T models, thats what Im using in mine and it runs nice and smooth

 

@deathtaker27: It is pointless to pay for those. They are models with lower frequency, which would matter in load - but in idle all of them are at pretty much same power usage for the 1.6GHz minimum clock - it doesn't matter if you got the single core Celeron, the dual core Celerons, then Pentiums, Core i3's, i5's or i7's. The are idle at pretty much same power, including the T models. For example G620@2.6GHz vs G620T@2.2GHz. The TDP is lower only because for 2.2GHz you need lower voltage. That is all.

 

Are those OSs suitable for mac backups? I was under the impression there was some issues with lion time machine.

 

It's not worth it tbh. The wattage you save is minimal for the cost, and frankly you could do it yourself with underclocking.

Also 1600MHz memory is overkill for a server - if you want to spend extra on memory look for 1.25V 'ECO' or 'Green' stuff to save that bit of power. This will be cheaper than a T series CPU

 

So I finally ordered the parts, changing only two thins this time.
The PSU and RAM.

PSU: Be Quiet E9 StraightPower 480W Modular PSU
RAM: CORSAIR VENG BLU 2X2GB DDR3

The HDD I ended up getting was a 2TB CAVIAR GREEN

I picked free delivery so they wont be here for another week but will update on the first build.

 

480W is overkill for a system without a power hungry graphics card.

300W would have been fine.

 

What O/S are you planning to use on it?

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk

 

I'd look into a OS system called unraid - Use it myself and it works great for the same thing your doing. Only thing I can't comment on is use with a Mac as I dont use one. Shares out folders etc as samba shares so if Mac can access it ok, shouldnt see any big issues.